Hey for Business vs. Voice-Powered CRM: Which Saves Sales Teams More Time?

Hey for Business vs. Voice-Powered CRM: Which Saves Sales Teams More Time?

Your sales team is losing nearly a third of its workweek to the black hole of their inbox. That’s not an exaggeration; research shows sales reps spend a staggering 28% of their time just managing emails, time that could be spent building relationships and closing deals.

This massive productivity drain has led business leaders to search for better solutions, and one name that frequently comes up is Hey for Business. With its promise of a calmer, more organized inbox, it’s an attractive option. But does a cleaner inbox solve the real problem, or does it just put a fresh coat of paint on a fundamentally broken workflow?

Let's break down what Hey for Business offers sales teams and explore a more powerful alternative that tackles the root cause of lost selling time: the gap between communication and your CRM.

What is Hey for Business? A Sales Team Perspective

Hey.com, from the creators of Basecamp, reimagined personal email with a focus on control and organization. Hey for Business extends that philosophy to professional teams, aiming to replace the chaos of traditional Gmail and Outlook inboxes with a streamlined, focused experience.

Key Features and Pricing

For sales teams evaluating the platform, here’s what you get for $12 per user, per month:

• Custom Domains: Present a professional front with email addresses like your.rep@yourcompany.com.

• The "Imbox": Hey’s signature feature screens all incoming emails, forcing you to approve or block senders. The goal is to only let important communication through.

• Privacy First: It automatically blocks tracking pixels, preventing senders from knowing when or where you opened their emails—a crucial feature for maintaining client confidentiality.

• Built-in Workflows: Features like "Reply Later" and "Set Aside" provide dedicated spaces to manage emails without letting them clutter your primary view.

The Appeal for Sales Leaders

For sales directors and VPs, the appeal is clear. A less distracted sales rep is a more productive sales rep. By filtering out noise and providing tools to triage communication, Hey for Business promises to give your team back some of the 121 emails they receive on an average day. The idea is simple: better email management leads to faster response times and fewer missed opportunities.

But here’s the critical question: What happens after the email is read?

The Real Productivity Killer: The Gap Between Email and CRM

Even with the most pristine, perfectly organized inbox in the world, the single biggest bottleneck for a sales team remains. The crucial information from that client email—budget updates, stakeholder names, follow-up actions—still has to get into Salesforce.

This is where email management tools fall short. They optimize the inbox, but they don’t touch the soul-crushing administrative task of manual data entry.

This isn't just an annoyance; it’s a direct hit to your bottom line. Consider these industry stats:

• 79% of sales teams report that poor data quality significantly hurts their performance.

• Sales reps spend only 36% of their time actually selling, with the rest consumed by administrative tasks like updating the CRM.

• This administrative drag costs businesses an average of $1,200 per employee annually.

Every time a rep switches from their Hey inbox to their Salesforce tab, they have to manually find the right Account or Opportunity, copy-paste key details, update the stage, and create a follow-up task. This repetitive, time-consuming process is the real enemy of sales productivity.

Closing the Gap with Voice: How Colby Transforms Salesforce Updates

Instead of just organizing the communication, what if you could eliminate the manual data transfer entirely? That’s the principle behind a voice-powered Salesforce integration like Colby.

Colby works as a Chrome extension directly within your workflow, allowing your team to update Salesforce using natural language—either by voice or by typing a simple message.

From Conversation to CRM in Seconds

Let’s compare the workflows.

Traditional Workflow (with Hey for Business):

1. Read a client email in your organized "Imbox."

2. Switch tabs to Salesforce.

3. Search for the correct Opportunity.

4. Manually type a summary of the email into the notes.

5. Click to update the opportunity stage.

6. Navigate to tasks to create a follow-up reminder.

Colby-Powered Workflow:

1. Read the client email (in Hey, Gmail, or anywhere else).

2. Activate Colby and say: "Update Johnson account: discussed Q4 budget increase to $50K, next meeting scheduled for Friday, move to negotiation stage."

3. Colby instantly parses the command, populates the relevant Salesforce fields, and creates the follow-up task automatically.

This isn’t just about speed; it’s about removing friction and keeping your reps in a selling mindset. With a tool like getcolby.com, your team can even perform complex actions, like bulk-updating records or running research-informed queries ("Add all FinServ directors in Seattle to my new campaign").

Tired of the copy-paste grind? See how Colby automates Salesforce updates with just your voice.*

Hey for Business vs. Voice CRM: A Head-to-Head Comparison

While both tools aim to improve productivity, they solve fundamentally different problems. While other tools like Superhuman ($30/user/month) focus on speeding up email processing, they still don't solve the core CRM data entry problem.

Where Hey for Business Shines

Hey is an excellent tool for teams whose primary pain point is communication overload. If your sales cycle is less CRM-intensive and more about managing a high volume of inbound inquiries, the screening and organizational features can provide significant value for its $12/month price tag. It establishes a professional, private, and focused communication hub.

Where Voice-Powered CRM Delivers Unmatched ROI

Colby is built for sales teams whose lifeblood is Salesforce. The ROI isn't just in time saved; it's in the massive downstream impact on your entire sales operation.

Companies using integrated communication and CRM systems see 41% higher revenue per sales rep. By ensuring that CRM data is updated instantly and accurately after every interaction, Colby delivers:

• More Selling Time: Reclaim the hours lost to administrative work and reinvest them in revenue-generating activities.

• Higher Quality Data: Eliminate human error and incomplete records. Accurate data leads to better forecasting and more effective coaching.

• Faster Sales Cycles: With real-time updates and automated follow-ups, opportunities move through the pipeline faster and nothing falls through the cracks.

Making the Smart Choice for Your Team

So, should you choose a better email tool or a smarter CRM workflow?

Choose an email tool like Hey for Business if:

• Your primary challenge is inbox noise and distraction.

• Your team needs better tools for organizing email threads and follow-ups internally.

• CRM data entry is a minor part of your daily workflow.

Choose a voice-powered CRM tool like getcolby.com if:

• Your sales reps live in Salesforce and are bogged down by manual updates.

• Inaccurate or delayed CRM data is hurting your forecasting and performance.

• You want to maximize the time your team spends actively selling.

Ultimately, the two can even be complementary. You can use Hey for a clean inbox and Colby to bridge the critical gap between that inbox and Salesforce. But if you have to choose one to make the biggest impact on your bottom line, the choice is clear.

Ready to reclaim selling time and boost CRM accuracy? Explore Colby's voice-powered integration for Salesforce today.*

Beyond the Inbox: The Future of Sales Productivity is Voice

Improving email management is a good first step, but it’s only optimizing a small piece of the sales puzzle. True productivity gains come from re-engineering the core workflows that consume the most time and create the most friction.

By empowering your team to update their most important system of record with the power of their voice, you’re not just making them faster—you’re freeing them to do the high-value work they were hired for.

Stop managing email and start driving revenue.

Visit https://getcolby.com to see how voice-powered automation can transform your sales workflow and deliver a return on investment that no email tool can match.